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Summary: The greatest hits of the greatest mind in management.
Review: Peter Drucker is the father of modern management theory and has never been equaled or surpassed in terms of his theories or their usability. The problem with Drucker is that over the course of sixty highly productive years, he's put out more books than it is practical for almost anyone to read. This book addresses that issue for those of us who would like the best parts in one book.
The mark of the finest minds is the ability to clearly and simply articulate ideas that make you wonder "why didn't I think of that?" Once stated, Drucker's ideas are so obvious, but I almost never find any that I came up with on my own and have never put the ideas into words as concisely as he does time after time.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in running a better business. My copy is dog-eared, underlined, marked-up and otherwise worn.
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Summary: Back to the Future!
Review: Recently, I read JACK by GE's Jack Welch. In it, he praises Drucker as one of the best management minds ever. High praise from the person most consider to be THE best CEO America has ever produced. This collection of the best of Drucker's writings is amazing in its clarity, depth, and breadth. To consider that many were written years ago but remain SO current in today's globalized world is truly amazing. I found myself unable to resist highlighting with my magic marker this passage or that passage. This book is extremely readable and would make a wonderful gift to your favorite manager or to that manager you would like to see develop. My copy, only a few weeks old, is already "dog-earred" from repeatedly going back to read and re-read Drucker's wonderful insights, inspirations, and chastisements. You will be really sorry if you do not get this book for yourself. You, your work team, and your organization need/deserve it. Invest in a resource that really will have a meaningful return for you.
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Summary: The "Best of" Is Not Enough
Review: REVIEW: While I only rated this book 4 stars, keep in mind that this is a relative rating and that Peter Drucker's primary competition is himself. Drucker's books are always full of great thinking and great content, but I'm not sure that this book is for everyone interested in Peter Drucker (at least it's not one that I'd recommend first). First of all, the idea of distilling Drucker's work into a single book of material is hard for me to accept because he has so much great material that was already written fairly concisely (though there some overlap in his works). Does having the Essential Drucker mean you can read it and skip the original books? Certainly not if your serious about becoming a more effective person/executive. It is sort of like picking one Shakespeare or one Mozart, you'll get a good piece of work, but you're still missing a whole lot of important stuff. Anyway, I think there is a couple situations for which this book will be especially useful. First, it may be most valuable to people (like me) who have read a number of Drucker's books. In essence, the Essential Drucker can act as a short refresher on many of Drucker's important concepts without having to go back and reread all of the original books. For this purpose the book was highly valuable to me. Also, the book may be valuable to those that have read a little Drucker and want to read more, but are unsure which of his many books to start with. Since the introduction lists the book that each chapter was originally published in, you can easy go to the source to expand upon something that interests you. However, for the reader that's fairly new to Drucker, why not go to the source and read something like Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The Practice of Management, or The Effective Executive. No matter what you choose you'll get great content related to the theory and practice of management. A final comment, an interesting approach to reading the Essential Drucker would be to read each chapter and then guess what year the chapter was written. In many cases, I think the answer will surprise. STRENGTHS: As always, you get great content from one of the world's great thinkers on management, organization, and society. His writing is very concise, to-the-point, and sprinkled with real life examples. WEAKNESSES: Some people are put-off by his very matter-of-fact writing style. He knows when he's right and rarely hedges his statements. Also, those needing fancy diagrams and graphics to learn material will be put off, because there are none. WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK: For the reasons stated above, I'm recommending this book mainly to those who are interested in Drucker's management writings and who are already familiar with some of them. It makes a great refresher. ALSO CONSIDER: Other major works by Drucker including, Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The Practice of Management, and The Effective Executive.
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Summary: Perennial Wisdom from the High Priest of Management
Review: The Essential Drucker is an excellent introduction to the Peter Drucker's writings on management. Some readers, understandably, complain that the book is so general on some topics, that its practical value is sometimes limited. Ultimately, this recapitulation of Drucker's essential thoughts about management is an invitation to rethink some commonly accepted views on management. If one needs convincing on this point, consider the following ten examples:
1) Contrary to popular belief, management and entrepreneurship are not opposite, but complimentary (pg. 8, 136-143, and 161-188). An established company that does not innovate, is regularly doomed to what Joseph Schumpeter called creative destruction. As Clayton Christensen demonstrates brilliantly in The Innovator's Dilemma, innovation is sometimes not even enough to avert business failure. Similarly, a poorly managed start-up will often end up broken (pg. 144-160).
2) One of the three tasks of management is managing social impacts and social responsibilities. The recent wave of corporate scandals unfortunately illustrates this point too well, often with disastrous consequences for their authors and the stakeholders who have a key interest in the success of the organization (pg. 16-20). Profit is not the explanation, cause or rationale of business behavior and business decisions, but rather the test of their validity as Drucker states (pg. 18).
3) Neither is there a separate ethics of business, nor one is needed. The ethics of responsibility is plain, everyday honesty. The issue is one of moral values and moral education of the individual. As Drucker bluntly points out, all that is needed is to mete stiff punishments to those - whether business executives or others - who yield to temptation (pg. 63-64).
4) Few organizations reach at least 30% of all potential customers in any market. And yet few organizations know anything about the non-customers (pg. 85). To start changing this, organizations have to understand what existing and potential customers really value in a product or service. This desired value is not necessarily what the supplier sells (pg. 86, 111, 148, 186).
5) Each manager should have the information he needs to measure his own performance and should receive it soon enough to make any necessary changes. Yet in most organizations, the results of the audits do not go to the managers audited, but to the top management who then confronts these managers with the audit of their operations (pg. 121-122). Management by self-control is more productive than management by domination to achieve excellence.
6) Most executives do not perform very well when they promote or hire. By all accounts, only one-third of such decisions turn out to be right; one-third are minimally effective; one-third are outright failures. In no other area of management is such dismissal performance tolerated (pg. 127). Drucker also reminds his readers that it is not intuitively obvious to most people that a new and different job requires a new and different behavior (pg. 132, 211).
7) Few people realize that many people make decisions within organizations. Knowledge workers who are considered partners rather than employees, can only be helped. The close supervision of knowledge workers is often illusory because of their unique expertise. Only effectiveness that focuses on contribution, transforms intelligence, imagination and knowledge into results (pg. 192-193, 196, 207).
8) Warm feelings and pleasant words are meaningless, if there is no achievement in what is, after all, a work-focused and task-focused relationship. An occasional rough word will not disturb a relationship that produces results and accomplishments for all concerned according to Drucker (pg. 213-214).
9) Many business policy statements contain no action commitment. No wonder that the people in the organization tend to view these statements cynically because they do not reflect top management's true intentions (pg. 249).
10) Leadership has little to do with leadership qualities and even less to do with charisma. Leadership is a means that is mundane, unromantic and boring. Its essence is performance (pg. 268). The key characteristics of leadership are hard work, clear and legitimate goals, responsibility, trust and integrity (pg. 269-271).
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Summary: Compendium of 60 Yrs. of Managerial Research/Reflection
Review: There probably does not exist a major league manager who has not been influenced by Drucker. This is a compilation of his books spanning his career thus far on the topic of management. Drucker is always tight in his style and words with thoughts that at first make one sit up and take notice. The first chapter sets the tone for the rest. This quote says it all: "Actually, waht is our business? is almost always a difficult question and the right answer is usually anything but obvious. The answer to the question, What is our business? is the first responsibility of top management. That business purpose and business mission are so rarely given adequate thought is perhaps the single most important cause of business frustration and business failure." To his vast experience and knowledge, it is so refreshing to here him denounce profitability as a myth for the purpose of any business. He calls it irrelevant. Of the highest relevancy for Drucker are two basic functions: makerting and innovation. Hurray, say all the marketing types! Wish the top management could join in the understanding. Drucker's views are wide open to reality searching with broad vision over the world panorama. This book is exceptional collection of some of Drucker's best writing. Well chosen for their punch and coverage of such a vital, modern topic as management, this book will serve practioners as well as those who desire an understanding of the topic.
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Summary: Very good introduction to Drucker
Review: This is a good book if you are just introducing yourself to Peter Drucker. The author makes several wise selections in the excerpts he chooses especially the section on entrepreneurial strategies from Drucker's 1985 book Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
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Summary: Intellectually stimulating book.
Review: This is the first book of Drucker that I had read. This is the book for all those people out there who have heard, read or come across Drucker's work in their professional life , but didn't know where to start . It takes you through almost all of Drucker's works on management right from the Management's tasks and responsibilities to the currently very popular but least understood concept of knowledge worker and their productivity. It can serve as the ideal reference book for going into depth on any of the topics discussed. Speaking for myself after reading this book I have read 3 more Drucker's books and crave for more of his works.
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Summary: Codex of modern corporate philosophy
Review: This truly outstanding book is a revelation that helps to understand why Drucker is a guru of management gurus. The book covers all Drucker's major ideas as they unfold in sections about business, individuals, society. Do not look for extensive analysis, theoretical reviews, footnotes or even facts supporting the theory. There are none of them. Drucker is very straightforward, he never hesitates about making his point and very often doesn't even consider alternative theories or options. There is no wonder why he is an outcast in the academic community. Nonetheless, for anyone who practices real business today Drucker does not simply sounds good, you accept his ideas because that's what you always thought about business but couldn't structure so nicely and describe with such strong logic and integrity. For a manager this book could be a revelation as it puts together into a coherent picture thousands of puzzle pieces in a confused business world of today. There is no wonder why Drucker is so popular among successful CEOs.. "Essential Drucker" could be used as an official manual of corporate philosophy and culture at GE, for example. It's evident that Jack Welch's ideas are strongly influenced by Peter Drucker Unlike Welch, Peter Drucker doesn't confuse corporate culture with certain psychological types of personality. He doesn't contradict himself like Welch in describing managerial effectiveness or in formulating strategic mission and strategy. Anyway, if you think Jack Welch's ideas are great you better read "Essential Drucker".
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